Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

If you want to have a season of mellow fruitfulness next year then now is the time to plant soft fruit and trees. We have a great range of fruit ready to plant now. We have Apples, Pears, Cherrries and Plums as well as Blackberries, Blackcurrants, Blueberries, Cob nuts, Gooseberries, Grapes, Kiwi fruits, Loganberries, Raspberries and Redcurrants. What are you waiting for? Come on in and get your fruit garden sorted now!! It doesn't matter if you don't have a dedicated fruit garden you can grow your crops amongst other plants in your garden or even in pots! Why not give it a go and try growing your own.
Whilst we're talking about growing your own - did you know that you can plant overwintering Onion Sets now? They will be ready to eat from May onwards. Now is the perfect time to plant Garlic, too. We have the excellent variety "Solent Wight" in stock. It's very hardy and produces large, well flavoured bulbs.

Autumn arrives

Autumn seems to have arrived with a vengeance today - the wind is driving us mad!! But there are lots of plants you can plant now. We have had a new batch of fruit trees arrive recently. You may have heard of - or indeed had problems with - the difficulty with keeping Plum trees. It seems that Plums particularly are having problems with the irregular winter seasons we have experienced in the last few years and all Nurseries are finding it difficult to keep them through the winter in pots. However, the good news is that the problems are not being seen in Plum trees that are planted in the ground well before the onset of Winter and that means that now is the perfect time to plant. We have had a reasonable amount of rain and the ground is still warm which makes it perfect planting time for any hardy stock.

The violas, pansies, cyclamen, chrysanths and all autumn and winter flowering plants are looking great and ready to go in now. It has been a challenging summer and not all of the summer bedding has enjoyed it so now is a perfect time to replenish your baskets and containers for winter.

The roses have been really good this year again and at the moment they are still flowering away. We have a lovely selection of David Austin Roses on the Nursery. They are so easy going and seem to keep on repeat flowering if you dead head them regularly. They are particularly good when grown in large pots and that makes them excellent subjects for the patio as they love the sun. There are even some which you can train as small climbers - making only 6 -8 feet in height which is ideal if your garden is not huge as they will just fill a fence panel but not grow too huge.

If your garden is looking a bit dull and colourless at the moment think about planting Michaelmas Daisies. There are lovely varieties that do not succumb to mildew and add a great splash of colour at this time year. "Little Carlow" is the pictured variety and it is lovely. Schizostylis are another great late-flowerer and go on well into the first frosts but look quite exotic. They need a sunny spot. Of course there are many plants looking good at this time of the year and by far the best way to work out what to plant is to come up and have a look!

See you soon!!

Summer has arrived!

I feel a bit embarrassed that I have had nothing to say to you all since December! I could find nothing to inspire me about the Winter or the Spring. Isn't that terrible! We were busy trying to keep everything alive for months - and we succeeded (mostly). We have had a good bedding plant season and have been kept busy with Hanging Basket orders. We have been heartened by the number of lovely comments we have received from customers both old and new about how well the plants look and how much they enjoy coming to the Nursery. I must say that it is great to hear such nice comments. We love our plants and it is great when we discover that you love them too! The picture is of one of the many Hanging Baskets we have made this year. Sue, our chief Hanging Basket maker does a really fantastic job as any of you who have had a Basket made by us will testify. We are justifiably proud of the service we offer and Sue always manages to produce beautiful Baskets whatever the colour scheme requested! Jim is getting a bit tired of getting up at 5 a.m. to water everything so is glad that almost all of the baskets have now gone to their new homes. We discovered that there is an enormous difference in the quality of the plants when they are watered very early in the morning compared to those that got watered in the afternoon - so now he gets up really early and waters everything - I think he enjoys the peace and quiet and communing with the plants uninterrupted!!

We have some lovely roses at the moment - they are all just coming into flower. The picture is the David Austin Rose 'Port Sunlight' - beautiful isn't it? If you're passing why not pop in and come and sniff them all - they are fantastic!!